Turkish Coffee-Rubbed Brisket

Though 4 pounds of brisket may seem like a lot, remember that this cut of meat loses some weight in cooking; one advantage of leaner first-cut brisket is that there's less shrinkage, but remember you'll pay more for the privilege.

One 3 1/2- to 4-pound brisket, (first or second cut; Solomonov prefers well-marbled second cut)

Special equipment:

Heavy, large roasting pan

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place onions, potatoes, carrot, fennel, and garlic in a heavy roasting pan. Toss with olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. In a small bowl, combine coffee, cinnamon, cardamom, remaining 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Rub all over brisket and nestle brisket into vegetables to rest on bottom of pan. Roast until vegetables are lightly browned, 45 minutes.

Cover tightly with foil, lower oven to 300°F, and roast until fork-tender (you should be able to insert a roasting fork in the center and twist slightly with little resistance), 4 1/2 to 5 hours for first cut and 5 1/2 to 6 hours for second cut. As the brisket cooks, check on it every 45 minutes, adding 1/4 cup water to the pan if it starts to look dry. When the brisket is cooked, remove roasting pan from oven, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate with the vegetables until fat is solid, 8 to 24 hours. Transfer brisket to a cutting board and slice across the grain. Skim and discard fat in the roasting pan. Return brisket slices to the roasting pan with the vegetables and cooking juices.

To serve, preheat oven to 300°F. Transfer roasting pan to oven and heat brisket until liquid is melted and brisket and vegetables are just warmed through, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer the brisket and vegetables to a serving dish, cover with foil, and reserve. Set the roasting pan over two burners on the stovetop and simmer the liquid over medium heat until thickened, 10 to 15 minutes. Pour the thickened pan juices over the brisket and serve.

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Reviews

I made this as a Passover main dish. I used the carrots and onions, but there was no fennel at my store, so I skipped that and the potatoes. I cooked the brisket in a pressure cooker, with about half a cup of water, for 1 hour on high pressure. Then I refrigerated overnight. Everyone loved it. The flavors were great.
I made it a second time, and added a lemon to the pressure cooker. I liked that bit of citrus lift. I don't know how the vegetables would air in a roasting pan, I but I used them for added flavor in the gravy, rather than as part of the meal.

Marinated this in the rub for a day and a bit, baked open as stated by recipe and then very tightly closed the package for final baking of only three hours. Let sit for a day and half and sliced it when cold - easily cut and it stayed in tact when reheated in the gravy. The 'gravy' was a thin and watery so I thickened it a bit and it was a hit. Left out the potatoes and onions as a guest was allergic to them. The brisket was juicy and everyone devoured it and stated how very good it was with such interesting tastes. The baked vegetables were not that great - I served them but nobody ate them!

Followed the recipe and came out with a brisket that was dry and stringy. Not very palatable. Vegetables were charred or lost their integrity during the cooking process. Would not recommend this recipe. Giving it one fork ONLY because the site requires rating it. In reality, it's a big fat ZERO.

I made this for a Hannukah dinner. At first I was nervous because when I took brisket out of oven after 4 hrs of cooking it looked burnt and overcooked. But of course, the coffee rub is what gave it that appearance. The inside was a little dry but everyone said it was fabulous (and my family doesn't mince words). I ran out of time, so I did not do the last part for the gravy so I just put in a bowl and microwaved for a minute and served on the side. Since everyone that ate it, gave it a high rating i'm giving 4 stars. It was fairly easy to make.

In response to the question about sodium...
Although the beef itself has very little sodium (around 5-10 mg per ounce), there are 4 teaspoons of salt in the recipe, with 2250 mg of sodium per teaspoon., and you'll note that the calculation is for four servings from this recipe.
Most of use are going to get more than 4 servings (I hope), but even a more reasonably-sized serving (feeding 8-10) is going to have 1000 or more mg of sodium.

It seems like most of the posters have no idea what a brisket is.
You cook these tough beasts slow and low till there hasn't been any pink for over an hour and you keep on going till it's fork tender and the fat melts like butter in your mouth.
This is not rare/medium-rare prime rib.

I agree - pink brisket is NOT a good thing. This cut of meat requires long cooking. Had I found this recipe before Rosh ha-Shanah, I would most definitely have tried it. As it was, I made my standard recipe, which varies a little from the one below. First of all, I'm guessing that all that tin foil is to avoid the roasting pan's getting dirty. Second, I, too, didn't include potatoes in the vegetable mix. Not that I didn't serve potatoes, but I cooked them separately. So, I trimmed most of the fat from the brisket (you do need to have some), rubbed only the top of a 4-ish lb. brisket (fatty side) with the onion soup mix, threw in some roughly cut carrots (4) and celery (4 stalks), one large onion, coarsely chopped, 4-5 cloves of garlic, added just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan (sometimes the brisket doesn't release enough liquid on its own), then added half a bottle of red wine on a whim, covered the roasting pan tightly with heavy-duty tin foil, and put it into a pre-heated 350 oven. Check the meat for tenderness at about 2 hrs. (and add more liquid if needed), but total cooking time will be about 3 hrs. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool to room temperature. For ease of cutting, remove brisket to a plate and refrigerate for a few hours, though it can easily be cut at room temperature as well, but use a straight-bladed knife; a serrated blade only shreds the meat. I pureed the vegetables and liquid with an immersion blender (though you could use a regular blender as well), then poured the resulting gravy into a bowl to refrigerate. Any fat rises to the surface, and solidifies after a few hours. If the gravy is too thick, thin with some water; if too salty (the onion soup mix is VERY salty), coarsely cut up a potato, and cook it in the gravy for about 1/2 hr.

It looks like Epicurious is editing out the ratings on this - reading the reviews, lots of trouble with this recipe, yet it appears to get four forks! Pretty misleading. Hard to believe that many people forgot to rate it...

Dear fellow epicurions, don't fuss over a vague or strange recipe. There is an outstanding recipe, Beef Brisket with Portabello Mushroms and Dried Cranberries, that is on this site. You don't have to take my word for it, over 200 others have enjoyed. It is the recipe that taught me how to properly cook a brisket. Then read over the other genuine 4 fork recipes for brisket. This one seems to have more questions than diners.

I have used a very similar coffee rub and a coffee flavored mop on my last 3 smoked briskets. It takes about 16 hrs with a 9 lbs brisket. I mop about every 90 min. @ 225 degrees. I then let it rest for 2 hrs in an ice chest covered with tin foil and bath towels. WOW This recipe has offered me some new ingredients to add to my rub. Thanks.

Not one person wants pink brisket. Ever.
It is a very tough cut of meat that needs low heat for a long time.
My families Christmas favorite is straight out of the past!
1 large brisket (4-5lbs), some fat removed. Fat is important, so leave some.
2 envelopes onion soup mix
heavy duty foil
lay two large sheets of HD foil out and place the roast...fat side up. sprinkle with soup mix and seal with one layer of HD foil. Then seal with a second layer. Not tight, but sealed very well. Place in a large roasting pan, cover with foil and/or lid. In the oven at 275 for about 4 hours. Let it rest for awhile. It while shred easily and cut, against the grain, with an electric knife.

I think this recipe would work better with a second cut (i.e., fattier) brisket. The first cut available at my local butcher was very lean. Taking note of earlier reviews which suggested reducing cooking time, I cooked the brisket for 45 minutes at 400 degrees, and another three hours at 300 degrees, checking every 45 minutes as indicated in the recipe. (There was always broth in the roasting pan so I didn't add more liquid.) I'm a bit disappointed. The coffee/spice rub is very delicious but the meat seems tough and dry. I will still be serving it to my holiday guests tomorrow, hoping the sauce will do the trick.

glad i read the reviews first. my total cooking time was three (3) hours and brisket was perfect for me. pink on the inside with a nice coating. veggies were just right. i peeled the garlic but otherwise followed the recipe. also it was just fine for dinner the first night. overnight part of the menu made for a nice gravy and a pretty presentation but straight out of the oven was impossible to resist!! i will most certainly be making this again.

i tried this recipe last week because i thought the flavors would be good. i used all the ingredients as listed, but added about 2 cups of beef broth & changed the process. I tightly covered the pan from the beginning and after 45 min. lowered the temp to 200 degrees. I let it go for 8 hours then sliced the meat (by this time it was so tender it nearly sliced itself), strained & defatted the sauce, and popped it back in the oven (170 degrees) until it was time to serve. next time i won't use potatoes because they don't have much flavor and they were cooked to long to be edible. the recipe instructions called for refrigerating the meat for a period of time before slicing and finishing. while i am sure cold meat would make for prettier slices, if the meat is not as tender as you would like it be prior to refrigeration it will never get more tender during the 2nd time you put it in the oven.

Yes! I also had difficulty with the cooking time. First time, I cooked it for just over the 4 hours and it was way too long. Second time, I adjusted and did about 3 hours. I think that was still too long. I'm trying it again now. Am wondering if maybe it's a mistake to do it for so long at 400 and then also for hours at 300?

Has anyone else had difficulty with the cooking time? The first time I made this, I cooked it for 4 hours (the low end of the recommended cooking time) and it was too well done. I'm thinking that 3 hours may be more like it. Anyone else?

I made this recipe last week and it was delicious! Next time, I'll cook it for less time so it's more rare in the center rather than well done. I like a little pink, though. However, even with it being well done the meat was extremely tender and fell apart. The vegetables were delicious. All around wonderful recipe. I used foldgers coffee and regular baking cinnamon and it was still delicious.

I added a little bit of smoked paprika to the rub and doubled up on the vegetables, but other than that, left everything as the recipe stated. If I make it again, I would peel the garlic, also. The flavor and texture of the meat was great.